Johann Fischbach was born as the son of a castle servant in Grafenegg. Soon, in 1801, the family moved to Vienna, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1812. Josef Mössmer and Josef Fischer were his teachers. In 1821 he received the Grand Academy Prize for an "Ideal Landscape". Fischbach was a tutor for Count Fries, and later a drawing teacher in Plankenberg. In 1825 he undertook a journey through Germany and Switzerland. Further career steps were the position of an inspector of Count Paar's copper engraving collection and as a supply teacher in the class for landscape drawing. In 1836 he left Vienna, followed by a stay in Rome. Since 1830, the artist repeatedly stayed in the Salzkammergut and in Gmunden, a landscape that offered him a rich world of motifs. In 1840 he settled in Salzburg, and subsequently maintained increasingly close contacts with Munich, where he moved in 1860. Fischbach, a friend of Gauermann, Danhauser and Stifter, was above all a landscape painter, but he was also interested in genre scenes and created templates for graphic cycles. These included "Picturesque Views of Salzburg and Upper Austria" or "The Trees of Germany", which was on display at the First International Art Exhibition in Munich’s “Glaspalast”. Fischbach's special talent is also evident in his drawings and watercolours. Rupert Feuchtmüller characterizes his work as a "link between romantic, ideal and real direction". A romantic play with light and the genre-like joy of storytelling are characteristic of many of his works.
Literature
Mayer-Matsies, Johann Fischbach. Landschafts- und Genremaler. Ein Lebensbild, München 1872; R. Galser, Eines Romantikers zerstörter Lebenstraum, in: Unsere Heimat, 1952, p. 170; R. Feuchtmüller, Johann Fischbach. 1797 - 1871, in: Kulturberichte aus Niederösterreich, F. 3, 1955, p. 21; Nikolaus Schaffer, Johann Fischbach. 1797 - 1871, Salzburg 1989; Reference books: Wurzbach, Bötticher, Thieme-Becker, Bruckmann / Münchner Maler im 19. Jahrhundert